Nice Joe You’ve Got There, Harry

Harry Reid's netroots approval rating in the Kos leadership poll plummeted from 80% following the November election to to 41% in February 2007, probably as a result of his failure to do much in the way of leadership when it came to extricating us from Iraq as well as the Fox News/Nevada debacle. One can only wonder what will happen to it now that he has chosen Joe Lieberman to preen around on behalf of the Senate Democrats (of which Joe is not one) in "support of the troops," legitimizing himself and Senate support for escalation all in one fell swoop.

Forgive me if I'm a bit slow here, but the GOP worked mighty hard to get Lieberman back in the Senate. And now we're supposed to believe that Reid, Schumer et. al. are being led around by the nose because Joe might jump ship and they might lose the majority, and the committee chairs with it? Except Lieberman would never jump ship, and even if he did, they wouldn't lose the committee chairs.

You'll have to excuse me if I'm too cynical here, but I just can't wrap my mind around the fact that Harry Reid and Chuck Shumer aren't aware of all this. Which means that all this tip-toeing around Joe Lieberman is a very fancy kabuki dance. Which also means we really have to question whether they mean to pass any legislation at all.

I don't know how you can read this any other way. We pesky anti-Iraq war liberals are happy to blame him for everything and so we aren't looking at this closely enough. And Lieberman is likely very happy to play the independent maverick and doesn't mind being the Democratic Martyr of Iraq.

But I have to say that I'm just a teensy bit disappointed in the Democrats. This is a war we're talking about not some tax cut legislation. They don't have to do anything that unctuous creep tells them to do. He is holding nothing over their heads and yet everyone is pretending that they are worried about appeasing Old Joe and so they can't actually get anything done on Iraq. You can't help but wonder if Lieberman and the Senate Dems aren't working the same side after all.

Is there anyone in the Senate who isn't hiding behind Lieberman? I realize he's a great magnet for netroots hostility, but it doesn't seem to be leaving Reid exactly untouched. Kos:

Harry Reid's tacit support for the Fox News-sponsored debate in Nevada seemed hard to beat.

But apparently this is his "fuck Democrats" week, because the Senate had dibs on choosing the deliverer of the "Weekly Democratic Radio Address", and guess who got it?

Non-Democrat Joe Lieberman.

On the positive side, Matt Stoller has more on the movement afoot by the Progressive Caucus will "push for withdrawal when the next bill on Iraq War funding comes to the House floor." And that's a good thing, because I just don't see any kind of leadership emerging on this front from the constellation of interests represented by Schumer, Reid, the GOP and CFL/Lieberman that seem designed to keep us mired in Iraq (Iran?) forever.

Jane Hamsher

Jane is the founder of Firedoglake.com. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect. She’s the author of the best selling book Killer Instinct and has produced such films Natural Born Killers and Permanent Midnight. She lives in Washington DC.Subscribe in a reader